PRODUCT & SERVICE LINE REPORTS


bigger carbon footprint – many hospitals are switching to reusable products such as HotDog Patient Warming. While this has created production challenges for us, we have been able to meet the increased demand.”


Ecolab acknowledges the supply chain disruptions in components, raw materi- als and procedure volume changes since COVID-19 emerged, too, according to Ryan Cushman, Assistant Marketing Manager, Healthcare, Surgical Solutions. “Supply chain disruptions have been felt across nearly every industry and patient temperature management [medi- cal] devices have not been exceptions,” Cushman said. “Managing inventories and mitigating backorders for products that are involved in life-saving procedures elevates the pressure and urgency for our teams. “Since the COVID-19 pandemic really started making an impact in early 2020, procedure volume has declined and to date, has not completely rebounded to pre-pandemic levels,” he continued. “In addition, hospitals have had to reallocate resources and trim budgets as they have seen reduced revenue-generating elective procedures. Business development plans and budgets have had to make big adjust- ments for these market shifts.”


Necessary device, process improvements


Devices and products used to manage pain and temperature may have undergone con- siderable advancements and development over the years, but clinical experts acknowl- edge more room for continued improvement. “The medical community’s response to the COVID pandemic resulted in new importance of temperature screening at the hospital and clinicoffice leel, and this demand for quick and easy measurement unfortunately spawned the proliferation of many limited- capability thermometers which, at best, were focused on consumer/retail applications and low-acuity situations,” he noted. “It’s important to understand that performance at the true professional level is only offered by instruments which have been clinically documented and approved for use in high- acuity medical environments.”


Augustine, an anesthesiologist and inven- tor, concentrates on the physical application and procedure.


“The single biggest improvement in patient temperature management devices is warm- ing simultaneously from above and below” he said. “Warming effectiveness is directly proportional to the amount of skin surface in contact with the heat. Warming from above only, for example with a forced-air blanket,


results in failing to reach normothermia (therapeutic failure) in 30% ti 50% of surger- ies. In contrast, warming from above and below simultaneously, results in less than 4% therapeutic failure.”


Gentherm Medical’s Ford cites footprint. “Decreasing the size of patient temperature management devices and making them por- table would be how I would improve existing patient temperature management devices,” she noted.


Stryker’s Mathieson, however, focuses on facilitation and quality. “Temperature man- agement devices and products need to be easy to use and safe,” she said. “Temperature management devices continue to improve in accuracy and precision, which helps to pre- vent patient instability linked to post-therapy complications – but the ease of use of these devices and the safety of the water and air quality could use improvement.” Seven years ago, the Food and Drug


Administration began notifying the healthcare industry about the aerosolization of microbes from water-based devices and the linkage to patient infections, according to Mathieson. Since 01, seeral additional notifications have gone out – as recently as 2021 – but many devices are not meeting the higher disinfec- tion standards which guarantee the devices are safe enough for use, even in the OR,”


58 July 2022 • HEALTHCARE PURCHASING NEWS • hpnonline.com


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